Tesla Begins the New Year With an Abysmal Record in Its Shares

Sometimes, good news isn’t just coming your way. Indeed, this is exactly what Tesla is experiencing after begin 2019 on a bad note. In fact, investors have opted to hammer the automaker’s stock regarding the abysmal trading the company experienced in the first two trading days of the year.

Tesla shares reduced by a whopping 9.7 percent on both Wednesday and Thursday, despite ending 2018 with a record number of sales and production numbers.

Tesla began the New Year with a 9.7 percent drop in its shares

Gearing for A Tough Year

Additionally, investors seem to be more focused on roadblocks that could be in the hindrance of Tesla’s path, as well as the flooding of new competition in the market.

Moreover, there is also the issue of the phasing-out of the federal tax credits that will offset the cost of the battery-electric vehicles that are produced by Tesla.

It’s also of no significance that the company’s fourth-quarter deliveries, that is the number of cars that are to be made as deliveries to customers, were released on Wednesday and nearly missed out on the estimation that analysts had given for the final quarter of this year.

That being said, the CEO of Tesla Elon Musk ended the year by sending out a tweet to congratulate his team.

Though there are a few investors who would not approve of the words of encouragement; primarily because 2018 was one of the most challenging years for the automaker. Indeed, it all began with what Musk coined as ‘production hell’ at the assembly plant located in Fremont California.

It even saw the CEO himself enter into a myriad of crises, as well as other situations, claiming that he had to design a plan to steer the company and make it private.

Which begs the question; how will 2019 pan out for Tesla?

It is here where analysts and investors seem to not be in agreement regarding whether the company will record a positive performance or not.

2018 has not been a great year for Tesla, with the company recording a high number of crises

Looking At The Company’s Hardship

Indeed, after a difficult 2018, one of the executive directors at Edmunds in charge of industry analysis, warns that Tesla is beginning the new year with the bitter reality of what it is meant to be an established car manufacturer in the market.

At first analysis, this viewpoint might seem a bit complex to fathom.

After all, Tesla had roughly 245,000 deliveries in 2018, which is not only the company’s record high, but also nears the total of the number of sales that the company had made since its existence all the way to the end of 2017!

Fortunately, at the time, demand was rising on a quarterly basis, exceeding that of the previous quarter by up to an 8 percent increase.

As a matter of fact, Tesla currently sits at first place as the number one producer of battery-electric vehicles, easily surpassing the likes of highly established manufacturers such as Nissan.

For starters, Nissan launched the first of its kind mainstream BEV, the Leaf, 9 years ago.

Investor confidence has shrunk significantly in the last couple of months

An Excess in Its Inventory

According to data reports released by Electrek, a news site that keeps tabs with trending info in the electric vehicle industry, it mentions that Tesla had over 3,3000 vehicles in its inventory as the company ushered in the new year.

Despite the reports, a spokesman for Tesla declined to make a direct response to them. However, he provided a statement.

He noted that the company’s current inventory levels are still the smallest in the automotive industry, and the company was able to minimize the number of vehicles that were in transit to customers by ameliorating their logic systems in the North American region.

The spokesman also addressed a blog post released on December 20th that addressed the fact that the company had made a release of all its fleet of vehicles, including those required for subsequent test drives, so as to be able to free up vehicles further.

That being said, Tesla will not be the only automaker that does not have an unsold inventory, according to the report by Elektrek.

Indeed, that was certainly not the case a few months ago, when the Tesla had claimed that it was unable to meet all the orders that had been issued prior to the Model 3 going into production in 2017.